highllites
As he played with snow as a child, lobbing snowballs into the grey waters of the river Schelde, Meeusen noticed that his bare hands were at first blanched and chilled by the snow but eventually turned bright red and warm, despite their continued contact with the ice-cold snow. The redness and warmness, of course, indicated that prolonged exposure to the icy snow had actually increased blood flow to his hands.
one of the goals of cryotherapy is to diminish the movement of blood to the site of an injury
Since ice can sometimes increase the amount of blood flooding into an injured part of the body, it must be used with caution.
when body tissues are cooled, nerve cells in the chilled area initially force adjacent blood vessels to constrict, leading to a marked reduction in blood flow in that portion of the body. However, if the temperature of the affected area continues to drop, nerve activity is depressed and the blood vessels begin to open up again, bringing in an onslaught of blood which re-warms the tissues, even though cold is still being applied.
blood flow decreased when body regions were subjected to moderate cooling but increased when colder temperatures were reached
large increase in muscular blood flow as tissue temperatures plummeted
it is important to strictly limit the time duration of an ice application in order to minimise the chances that a tidal flow of blood will sweep into an injured joint or muscle
ice applications should be limited to about 10 minutes or so.
when ice is applied to a body part for a prolonged period, nearby lymphatic vessels begin to dramatically increase their permeability
large amounts of fluid begin to pour from the lymphatics 'in the wrong direction' (into the injured area),
If the icing goes on for too long, the lymphatic vessels can actually be nearly obliterated, losing all of their fluid to the surrounding tissues and thus failing to carry excess water away from the injured area
With the 10 minutes of ice-induced cooling and a couple of minutes of additional cooling (see above) that occur in a damaged muscle or joint after the ice has been removed, an injured athlete can get a nice chilling effect without running the risk of flushing the site of injury with blood and water
t's better to ice the damaged region for 10 minutes immediately after the injury, remove the ice for about 30 minutes, and then reapply it for 10 additional minutes.
an easy and practical way to apply ice to an injury: simply fill a styrofoam cup with water, place it in the freezer section of your refrigerator, and remove the cup once the water has frozen solid.
overly long applications of ice can result in frostbite injury to the skin, nerve damage, and increased swelling and inflammation.
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im confused as to whether the 10 min time limit applies to chronic muscle conditions like trigger points
it would seem so
Edited by snorkels4, 12 March 2006 - 11:07 PM.
